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Strindberg Centenary year - Miss Julie


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This year is the centenary of the playwright August Strundberg's death. To commemorate this, the ballet Miss Juliet was shown on TV. It was originally choreographed on Elsa Marianne von Rosen and Julius Mengarelli in 1950 - to my knowledge it was not documented on film, In 1980 a revival was made and it was this version shown on TV. Danced by Galina Panova and Niclas Ek (brother of Mats and son of Birgit Cullberg). It was good and competently danced, but I personally feel that Panova was not quite right for the role. She is too small and compact, lacks the haughtiness and grandeur. It would be very interesting to compare the original - E.M. von Rosen was actually born into the nobility and I suppose she only had to be herself!

American Ballet Theater did a version, was it Lupe Serrano who danced Julie?

Anyway, if you can get hold of it, it is well worth seeing.

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ABT's MISS JULIE, first given on Sep. 18, 1958 was then danced by Violette Verdy and Erik Bruhn.

Thereafter a well-known interpreter of the role of Miss Julie was Toni Lander, a.k.a. Toni Pil

Scott Douglas was the Fiance in the first ABT perf. Sallie Wilson was the Cook,

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I recently attended a reading of Miss Julie by accomplished professional actors, and was astonished at how well this holds up as a play. I wonder how well the Culberg ballet holds up. It strikes me that Culberg, lacking words (and particular Strinberg's spareness of language) had to resort to more melodrama and angst than Strindberg himself puts on stage.

In my youth, this was one of my favorite story ballets. The Miss Julie I remember at ABT was Cynthia Gregory, whose amazing achievement it was to dance the role, over a long career, with Bruhn, Nureyev and Bujones. Gregory looked the part and was definitely aristocratic, but passionate too, and played the Miss Julie with a couple of screws loose beneath her beautiful head of hair.

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Oh dear,blushing.gif , in my first post I now see there was, not a misspelling on my part, but a typo- Well, the man is called August Strindberg and nothing else. He is also known as the man who hated women - all his portraits of women are not flattering in the least.

I have never seen Cynthia Gregory live, only on TV, but I imagine she would have made a good Miss Julie. What I had against the Ek-Panova was that it didnt quite come across as the spoilt brat daughter of the count was teasing the valet - it seemed more like the maid having a fling with a valet.

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Fröken Julie is still in the rep at the Royal Swedish Ballet. You can view a critical scene from there with Johanna Björnson & Pär Isberg at:

It will enter Paris Opera Ballet repertoire next season happy.png

Have they never performed it before?

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